Rivesaltes Camp Memorial

Today we headed to the camp memorial near Perpignan. It is very well done. Outside are the many buildings that housed the many refugees and displaced people interned here from 1939 to the 1960s, then underground a very detailed and moving exhibition with eyewitness recounts and stories from the survivors. The camp first housed Spanish civil war refugees, then the Undesirables of the Second World War- Jews, ( often sent by train from Germany and Eastern Europe to be processed before being sent back to camps such as Auschwitz) , communists , gypsies and Freemasons (!), followed by Harkis( Algerian refugees fleeing the civil war).